Exercise mimetic
Drugs that have health benefits similar to exercise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An exercise mimetic is a drug that mimics some of the biological effects of physical exercise. Exercise is known to have an effect in preventing, treating, or ameliorating the effects of a variety of serious illnesses, including cancer, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. As of 2021, no drug is known to have the same benefits.[2][3][1]
Known biological targets affected by exercise have also been targets of drug discovery, with limited results. These known targets include:[2]
| Targets | Drug candidates |
|---|---|
| irisin[2] | |
| brain-derived neurotrophic factor[2] | |
| interleukin-6[2] | |
| peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta | GW501516[2] |
| PPAR gamma coactivator 1-alpha[4] | |
| estrogen-related receptor γ/α | GSK4716[2] SLU-PP-332 |
| NFE2L2[4] | |
| Canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) proteins[5] | |
| Myostatin | myostatin inhibitors[6] |
The majority of the effect of exercise in reducing cardiovascular and all-cause mortality cannot be explained via improvements in quantifiable risk factors, such as blood cholesterol. This further increases the challenge of developing an effective exercise mimetic.[1] Moreover, even if a broad spectrum exercise mimetic were invented, it is not necessarily the case that its public health effects would be superior to interventions to increase exercise in the population.[1]
Exogenous administration of cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) in rodents has been found to mimic the beneficial effects of exercise on the heart in a rodent model of severe right-sided heart failure.[7][8][9][10][11] CT-1 is under formal development for the treatment of reperfusion injury.[12] It is or was also under development for treatment of acute kidney injury, diabetes mellitus, ischemia, liver failure, and obesity, but no recent development for these indications has been reported.[12]